Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

A little basic information:

You are connected to the internet by three basic links. It starts with a wholesale internet provider, then to the fiber company, then to WiFiCoNext then to your home.

Problems can occur anywhere along the way. The network is usually more stable the further away from your home it gets. There are very rarely failures at the wholesale internet level.

The internet come from a wholesaler to our fiber provider, to our radios to your house. In your house is a small plug-in device then connects the antenna on your roof to a box (a router) that send the signal to your computers or devices by wire or wifi. Although failures can happen, you should expect stable service.

Usually if there is a problem it will come in two ways:

First, no internet and

Second, slow internet speeds.

Here are some suggestions to solve the problem by yourself. Then of course you can always contact us.

No internet signal

If your internet service goes out please follow the following suggestions:

Check to make sure there is power to your router and the small plug in module that receives the cable from the antenna on the roof. Probably the best way to check is just to see if the small LED lights are blinking. If there is no power, check your breakers, and/or any ground fault outlet in your home.

Check to see if any of the power cables or Ethernet cables have come out. Many interruptions occur after cleaning or moving furniture.

Reboot the router. This is just a matter of unplugging the router, waiting about 20 seconds and plugging it back in. You should see the LED lights start to blink and then stabilize depending on the router.

By the way, we really recommend that you have your power module (that small plug-in device that connects you to the antenna on the roof) and your router in a UPS (uninterrupted power supply). These are cheap and will keep your system running up to an hour or so even if your house power is out. You can still use your devices. This can actually be a lifesaver. All of our equipment is supported by 48 – 72 battery back up.

A note about internet service. We have tried to do all we can to assure fast, reliable service. Having said that we are dependent on getting internet signal from a wholesale internet provider. Things do go wrong, cables get cut, power outages, and sometime the wrong switch gets flipped. We contact our wholesale provider as soon as we detect a problem with their signal. To the best of our ability we will let you know. We have found it is not a perfect system.

If all this fails then call us. We have equipment to tell whether the problem is on our end or in your house. We can test and see a log of your internet traffic. We will be happy to help get you back on line. In some situations it may require some equipment replacement either on our end or yours but we keep spares. If it looks like a serious problem we will bring doughnuts.

What if you have slow internet speeds?

Again we monitor our speeds several times a day and can see the speeds you are getting in your home. Please check often. Internet speed test sites vary widely. We have found the most stable site to be ATT Speed Test. If your speeds are slow it is most likely an issue of your wifi router and getting a signal through the walls in your house. Most homes have very cheap wifi routers and we might suggest an upgrade. You can buy one or we will rent you one for a modest cost.

The best way to test your real speed is on a computer connected by an Ethernet cable to your router.

Slow browsing speeds can happen for lots of reasons, malware, virus, caches, cookies, too many open browser windows and dozen of other reasons. There are lots of good web sites to help fix slow browsing.

What to do?

If your wifi is slow let us make some recommendations. If your speeds on your Ethernet-connected computer is slow it is time for us to help. Give us a call.

Remember, that if your power goes out or you change your equipment or settings, there is a good chance your internet will need some reconnecting. Again, let us help. If you have good stable internet, please resist the temptation to tinker with your router.